Eighties culture is big, from nostalgic TV dramas to tours by ageing pop stars. But it's time for a clear-eyed assessment of the decade, which prized excess and economic rationalism along with synth pop and big hair.

The journey to detention on Manus Island (pictured) and Nauru has its origins in 1990 cabinet discussions of asylum seeker policy.
AAP/Eoin BlackwellDecember 31, 2015

While the press at the time focused on what Keating called “the Punch and Judy show”, cabinet papers reveal that the fourth Hawke government was working at an astonishing pace at reforms still felt today.

In a new book, former prime minister Paul Keating makes it clear that, from a young age, he was interested in power and the gaining of it.
AAP/Daniel MunozDecember 17, 2015

From Hawke-Keating to Rudd-Gillard, climate policy has an uncanny ability to cost Australian political leaders their jobs. And it was a key element in the rivalry between Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.

The revolution of the past three decades has not been kind to the people who have experienced the destruction of their industries, jobs and communities.
AAP/Jessica EvansAugust 2, 2015

A line-up of former prime ministers stake their rival claims to making Australia great, in a new series by journalist George Megalogenis.

The cross-bench senators may call to mind Paul Keating’s charge of ‘unrepresentative swill’, but they also reflect and respond to the 21st-century world in ways that the major parties can’t.
AAP/Alan PorrittFebruary 22, 2015

The distinction between the global and the local is collapsing under the pressure of climate change, economic restructuring, global migration and jihadism on the one hand and the populist and information…

Mercurial, visionary: Paul Keating was by far the most industrious treasurer Australia has ever had.
National Archives of Australia: A6180, 15/2/93/25December 31, 2014

A recent public poll showed that of Australia’s recent federal treasurers, Peter Costello and even John Howard were rated higher than Paul Keating. Joe Hockey was rated the worst. Today’s release of the…

The public response to the eulogies to Gough Whitlam testifies to the power of oratory that draws on and gives fresh life to memory.
AAP/Alan PorrittNovember 7, 2014